Proto-Circassian language

Proto-Circassian is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Adyghean and Kabardian languages.

Phonology

Note on Orthography: This article employs Cyrillic characters alongside IPA to assist readers familiar with the Circassian alphabet. However, standard Adyghe orthography contains inconsistencies; notably, the digraph кӏ represents the sound despite visually suggesting a velar ejective . To ensure phonetic precision, this article utilizes the following distinctions: чӏ for, чӏъ for, and кӏь for .

Consonants

The consonant system is reconstructed with a four-way phonation contrast in stops and affricates, and a two-way contrast in fricatives.

Aspirated consonants to plain

In Proto-Circassian there was a series of aspirated consonants that survived in the Shapsug and Bzhedug dialects, while they became plain consonants in the other dialects.

The following table demonstrates the shift from Proto-Circassian to the plain consonants in other dialects.

Plain voiceless consonants to voiced

In the Proto-Circassian there was a series of tense consonants that became voiced in the eastern dialects.

→
→
→
→
→ /
→
→ /
→ /

Word	Proto Circassian	Bzhedug Chemguy	Besleney	Kabardian
we	ta	ta	da	da
leader	tħamaːta	tħamaːta	tħamaːda	tħamaːda
fish	pt͡saʐəja	pt͡saʐəja	bd͡zaʐej	bd͡zaʑej
glass	aːpkʲ	aːpt͡ʃ	ʔaːbɡʲ	ʔaːbd͡ʒ
chicken	kʲat	t͡ʃatə	ɡʲad	d͡ʒad
night	t͡ʃaɕ	t͡ʃaɕə	d͡ʒaɕ	ʒaɕ
village	t͡ʃəɮa	t͡ʃəɮa	d͡ʒəɮa	ʒəɮa
cow	t͡ʃam	t͡ʃamə	d͡ʒam	ʒam
tree	t͡ʂəɣ	t͡ʂəɣə	d͡ʐəɣ	ʒəɣ
mouse	t͡səʁʷa	t͡səʁʷa	d͡zəʁʷa	d͡zəʁʷa
short	kʲʼaːkʷa	t͡ʃʼaːkʷa	kʲʼaːɡʷa	t͡ʃʼaːɡʷa
wheat	kʷat͡s	kʷat͡sə	ɡʷad͡z	ɡʷad͡z

The Two Major Shifts

Historically, Proto-Circassian possessed a distinct series of stops and affricates. This inventory included palatalized velars and a contrast between retroflex and postalveolar affricates:
Postalveolar affricates:
Retroflex affricates:
Palatalized velars:
The evolution of these consonants into modern dialects occurred in two major phases: Spirantization and Velar Palatalization.

Phase 1: Spirantization (Affricate to Fricative)

In Phase 1, the original Proto-Circassian affricate postalveolar consonants and retroflex consonants underwent spirantization, becoming fricatives.

**Affected Dialects:** Abzakh, Modern Standard Kabardian, and archaic Kabardian dialects.
**Unaffected Dialects:** Shapsug, Bzhedug, Chemguy, and Besleney.

The shifts were:

→
→ /
→
→ /
→

In Abzakh, a specific variation occurred where often became a glottal stop .
Examples of Phase 1 shifts:

The Proto-Circassian word чӏэкӏьын "to come out from under" became щӏэкӏьын in Proto-Kabardian and ӏекӏьын in Proto-Abzakh.
The Proto-Circassian word чӏэгъуэжьын "to regret" became щӏэгъуэжын in Kabardian & ӏегъуэжьын Abzakh.
The Proto-Circassian word пачӏэ "mustache" became пащӏэ in both Kabardian & Abzakh.
The Proto-Circassian word чӏалэ "boy; young man" became щӏалэ in Kabardian and ӏелэ in Abzakh.
The Proto-Circassian word чӏымахуэ "winter" became щӏымахуэ in Kabardian and щӏымафэ in Abzakh.
The Proto-Circassian word чӏэ "new" became щӏэ in both Kabardian & Abzakh.

However, in dialects affected only by Phase 1 or both phases, words containing the original palatalized velars were initially unaffected. Words like кӏьапсэ "rope", кӏьэрахъуэ "gun" & кӏьэ "tail" were still pronounced with.
The following table demonstrates the Phase 1 shift, showing how Abzakh and Standard Kabardian innovated while Bzhedug, Chemguy, and Besleney remained conservative regarding these specific consonants.

Word	Proto Circassian	Bzhedug Chemguy	Besleney	Abzakh	Standard Kabardian
fox	baːd͡ʒa	baːd͡ʒa	baːd͡ʒa	baːʒa	baːʒa
village	qʷaːd͡ʒa	qʷaːd͡ʒa	qʷaːd͡ʒa	qʷaːʒa	qʷaːʒa
village	t͡ʃəɮa	t͡ʃəɮa	d͡ʒəɮa	ʃəɮa	ʒəɮa
night	t͡ʃaɕ	t͡ʃaɕə	d͡ʒaɕ	ʃaɕə	ʒaɕ
cow	t͡ʃam	t͡ʃamə	d͡ʒam	ʃamə	ʒam
new	t͡ʃʼa	t͡ʃʼa	t͡ʃʼa	ʃʼa	ɕʼa
winter	t͡ʃʼəmaːxʷa	t͡ʃʼəmaːfa	t͡ʃʼəmaːxʷa	ʃʼəmaːfa	ɕʼəmaːxʷa
young-man	t͡ʃʼaːɮa	t͡ʃʼaːɮa	t͡ʃʼaːɮa	ʔʲaːɮa	ɕʼaːɮa
to sleep	t͡ʂəjan	t͡ʂəjan	d͡ʐajən	ʂəjan	ʒajən
tree	t͡ʂəɣ	t͡ʂəɣə	d͡ʐəɣ	ʂəɣə	ʒəɣ
to run	t͡ʂan	t͡ʂan	d͡ʐan	tʂan	ʒan
area	t͡ʂʼəpʼa	t͡ʂʼəpʼa	t͡ʂʼəpʼa	ʃʼəpʼa	ɕʼəpʼa
iron	ʁʷət͡ʂʼə	ʁʷət͡ʂʼə	ʁʷət͡ʂʼə	ʃʼəpʼa	ɕʼəpʼa

Phase 2: Velar Palatalization

Later on, Phase 2 occurred. In this phase, the palatalized velar consonants гь, кь and кӏь became palato-alveolar consonants дж, ч and чӏ respectively.

**Affected Dialects:** Abzakh, Bzhedug, Chemguy, and Modern Standard Kabardian.
**Unaffected Dialects:** Shapsug, Besleney, and archaic Kabardian dialects.

The shifts were:

In dialects affected by Phase 2, words like чӏапсэ "rope", чӏэрахъуэ "gun" & чӏэ "tail" are now pronounced with.

Summary of Dialectal Evolution

The dialects can be categorized by which phases they underwent:

**Shapsug & Besleney:** Not affected by Phase 1 or Phase 2. They retain the most archaic features, keeping distinct palatalized velars and affricates.
**Bzhedug & Chemguy:** Not affected by Phase 1, but affected by Phase 2. They retain the original affricates but shifted the velars, resulting in a merger.
**Some Kabardian dialects :** Affected by Phase 1 but not Phase 2. They spirantized the affricates but kept the palatalized velars.
**Abzakh & Modern Standard Kabardian:** Affected by both Phase 1 and Phase 2. They spirantized the original affricates and then shifted the velars to become the new affricates.

The following table illustrates the distinction between the original postalveolar affricate and the original palatalized velar across the dialects.

Word	Proto Circassian	Shapsug	Besleney	Bzhedug Chemguy	Some Kabardian dialects	Abzakh	Standard Kabardian
tail	kʲʼa	kʲʼa	kʲʼa	t͡ʃʼa	kʲʼa	t͡ʃʼa	t͡ʃʼa
new	t͡ʃʼa	t͡ʃʼa	t͡ʃʼa	t͡ʃʼa	ʃʼa	ʃʼa	ʃʼa
winter	t͡ʃʼəmaːxʷa	t͡ʃʼəmaːfa	t͡ʃʼəmaːxʷa	t͡ʃʼəmaːfa	ʃʼəmaːxʷa	ʃʼəmaːfa	ʃʼəmaːxʷa
mustache	paːt͡ʃʼa	paːt͡ʃʼa	paːt͡ʃʼa	paːt͡ʃʼa	paːʃʼa	paːʃʼa	paːʃʼa

Introduction of Labiodental Fricatives

Proto-Circassian lacked the labiodental fricatives: the voiceless labiodental fricative and the voiced labiodental fricative. These sounds developed independently in the Western and Eastern dialects from completely different phonological sources.
In summary:

**Western Dialects** derived from the velar.
**Eastern Dialects** derived and from labialized sibilants.

Western Shift (Velar to Labiodental)

In Western Circassian dialects, the Proto-Circassian labialized voiceless velar fricative shifted to the voiceless labiodental fricative .
In Eastern dialects, this consonant remained a velar.

Word	Proto Circassian	Western	Eastern
human	t͡sʼəxʷ	t͡sʼəf	t͡sʼəxʷ
white	xʷəʑ	fəʑə	xʷəʑ
hot	xʷaːba	faːba	xʷaːba
day	maːxʷa	maːfa	maːxʷa

Eastern Shift (Sibilant to Labiodental)

In Eastern Circassian dialects, a series of Proto-Circassian labialized postalveolar consonants shifted to become labiodental consonants.
In Western dialects, these consonants retained their original sibilant nature.
The specific shifts in Eastern dialects were:

Divergence Example: "Light" vs. "Blind"

An interesting consequence of these opposing phonological shifts is the divergence of the words for "light" and "blind".
Proto-Circassian possessed two distinct words:

**Light:**
**Blind:**

Due to the different sources of the labiodental in the dialects, these words shifted in opposite directions:

**In Western :** The velar became. Therefore, "light" became. The sibilant was retained, so "blind" remained.
**In Eastern :** The sibilant became. Therefore, "blind" became. The velar was retained, so "light" remained.

As a result, the word is a "false friend" between the dialects: it means **light** in Adyghe, but **blind** in Kabardian.

Morphological Impact: Benefactive vs. Malefactive Prefixes

The phonological shifts also affected grammatical prefixes, creating distinct forms for the **Benefactive** and **Malefactive** prefixes in the modern dialects.
In Proto-Circassian, these prefixes were distinct:

**Benefactive :** — containing the velar.
**Malefactive :** — containing the ejective sibilant.

Due to the shifts:

**In Western :** The Benefactive became, while the Malefactive was retained as.
**In Eastern :** The Benefactive was retained as, while the Malefactive shifted to .

Function	Proto Circassian	Western	Eastern
Benefactive	xʷa-	fa-	xʷa-
Malefactive	ɕʷʼa-	ɕʷʼa-	fʼa-

Examples of verbs utilizing these prefixes:

Meaning	Proto Circassian	Western	Eastern
to go for someone's sake	xʷakʷʼan	fakʷʼan	xʷakʷʼan
to lose	ɕʷʼakʷʼan	ɕʷʼakʷʼan	fʼakʷʼan
to take for someone's sake	xʷaħən	faħən	xʷaħən
to take away from	ɕʷʼaħən	ɕʷʼaħən	fʼaħən

Schleicher's fable

Schleicher's fable in Proto-Circassian:

χʷǝ č́ʷara-gjǝ
χʷǝ ja laśʷam mә q́ˤ:an
č́ʷara pǝʎ́an;
mǝ χwanǝta k:ʷǝm q:irǝ,
mǝ čʷǝχʷa čʷam,
mǝ ć̣ǝm pasa mǝš́ʷrǝ.
χʷǝ č́ʷara q̇́ˤan:
"źǝʁʷǝ sā ǵʷǝ,
q:ać̣am ć̣arǝ č́ʷara ḳ́ʷarǝ."
č́ʷara q̇́ˤan: "q:́ˤʷa χʷǝ!
źǝʁʷǝ š́a ǵʷǝ ć̣arǝ,
q:ać̣a, ł́a, č́ʷara laśʷam
ʎ́ʷa ḳ́ač̣ʷǝm čǝ-wǝ,
χʷiara-gjǝ laśʷam mә q́ˤ:a."
nǝ q:́aˤʷasa χʷǝ rǝq:ʷada q:ˤʷan.